Summer Fun!

I've been trying to spend any available time with my family so we got together twice this week!

These are the favorite cousins M&E with CJ. M is only a month younger than CJ but has always been tiny and CJ has always been big!

At birth CJ was 24" long and 10 lb 9 oz and M was 18" 5 lb 15 oz
They have always been close although opposites in almost every way.

We went to a park that had a splash pad and let the "little" kids play.

I think 5'10" CJ enjoyed it more than any.

HEY! How did this get in here? That's not mine. That is Daren's new toy that he has saved for for years. He found it for sale in Las Vegas
and flew down Thursday, bought it and drove it home.

Now here is Rad!
He is the funniest kid on the planet.

My sister S and her Youngest daughter El

I love hanging out with my sisters but one has self esteem issues. If she's not dolled up for pictures she would rather make ugly faces so here are my sisters, J and S at the park.

These cousins are also close they are J and S daughters.

After an afternoon of boating and swimming the girls were happy to sit in the shade

and just eat and play. This is K, E and M.

We celebrated Rad's fourth birthday at the lake and we had spiderman cupcakes

This is J's husband and baby. He is the most hands on Dad.

After working long long days he still spent all day playing with kids

near the water and taking care of baby E.

(I managed to get in some baby time myself)

My guys, D and B were there but D was driving the boat all day so we all

could ski and tube and play. He was tired when we left but went all day.

He is the greatest!

B had a few good runs on the wake board and CJ is getting good too!

Lots of fun in the sun and no bad sunburns! A really good day!

Beal Family

July 3 was my family reunion.The reunion was for extended family but we started with family pictures of just my parents family. This is Mom and Dad with all 7 kids.

The next one is all the grandkids. Our L was working on the river Shirleys J is a newlywed and had to work and nephew M is serving a mission in Japan. All others present including one great grand child.
Here is the big group

Here is just our family group without L of course.

This is my nephew Logan, he's so quiet but freakin' smart. He got a 34 on his ACT. Can any of you say that? Unfortunately if you waste your time reading this you probably didn't. He doesn't say much but when he talks it's worth listening to. He has a great sense of humor.

OK so this genius boy didn't find plans to build a water balloon/candy cannon on the internet he came up with his own with the help of his "genius" friend, he says.The kids had a blast running for candy that was shot 50 feet in the air.

The funniest thing was the volley ball game going on the other direction. They decided to shoot candy right into the game and the adults all scrambled in the sand for the candy. It was great!

Awwwwww My little sister has the sweetest kids. This is the youngest grandchild of my parents and there is no shortage of attention. My brother loves babies and this one was never neglected. He held her most of the weekend. Precious!

I have the coolest brothers. The younger one has an unusual hobby. He makes ropes. Yeah, really, ropes. He made his own rope making machine and brings it to family gatherings. It always draws a crowd and most of the kids leave with their own custom made rope. They even choose the colors. Here is my Mom and nephew, L on the controlling end.

Now here is little R on the crank. Sooo Cute!

To top it off one cousin brought horses and the kids and adults went on little rides. We had huge meals and everyone wore color coded shirts. Blue for my Dads family. I feel bad that I didn't get more of the extended family members. It was interesting to see these cousins after not being a regular reunion attender. I enjoy getting together with my siblings and their families so much that we spend most of our time with each other. Since we are spread over 4 states we don't get together all that often.

My creative (nerdy) brothers even came up with a code to figure out who each of us was. The first number designates which family you came from. There were 10 children all together and My Dad is number 10 so his number was 10 and Mom is 10.s (s for spouse) They had 7 children so being the third child I became 10.3. I have 5 children so they became 10.3.1 & 10.3.2 etc. It was fun to see who could figure out the code and who adopted it. It's kind of a "cerebrial" (brainy) thing to do.

Great reunion! Great family!

More Beal Family

This is a picture of my niece L who is a lot like my daughter L who loves being outside, dirty and playing with critters. She took to this snake with no hesitation. She's da woman!
The guys were all very patient while waiting for pictures to happen at the womens request, of course. They had a good time and didn't go hungry so all was well.
R made a lovely cake for her grandparents second celebration of their 50th anniversary. She helped me with Friday night deli sandwiches and was fun to hang out with. It's fun to see her interact with her cousins now that they are adults and to get to know their spouses. She sure loves her Dad too!

My sister Ronda and her husband Dan were here from Southern California with all their kids (4) and each with a "significant other" (a child is significant too). Fun to see all of them!
The Freedom run began right at our campground and my brother has run this before so he signed up and beat his goal time. Way to go! This is him at the beginning of the race. 9.3 miles.

These are my two boys who ended up getting matching shirts without knowing it. My sister said we all looked like oatmeal. My shirt was about the same color. We looked good. These boys are 7 years apart and the younger one overtook the older one this past year. This is actually their height difference. I love these boys!